The Underground Railroad eBook

NATHAN was also a fellow-servant with Thomas, and
of course owned by Wilson. Nathan’s wife,
however, was owned by Wilson’s son, Abram.
Nathan was about twenty-five years of age, not very
dark. He had a remarkably large head on his shoulders
and was the picture of determination, and apparently
was exactly the kind of a subject that might be desirable
in the British possessions, in the forest or on the
farm.

His wife, Mary Ellen, is a brown-skinned, country-looking
young woman, about twenty years of age. In escaping,
they had to break jail, in the dead of night, while
all were asleep in the big house; and thus they succeeded.
What Mr. Wilson did, said or thought about these “shiftless”
creatures we are not prepared to say; we may, notwithstanding,
reasonably infer that the Underground has come in for
a liberal share of his indignation and wrath.
The above travelers came from near New Market, Md.
The few rags they were clad in were not really worth
the price that a woman would ask for washing them,
yet they brought with them about all they had.
Thus they had to be newly rigged at the expense of
the Vigilance Committee.

The Cambridge Democrat, of Nov. 4, 1857, from
which the advertisements were cut, said—­

“At a meeting of the people of
this county, held in Cambridge, on the 2d of November,
to take into consideration the better protection
of the interests of the slave-owners; among other
things that were done, it was resolved to enforce
the various acts of Assembly * * * * relating
to servants and slaves.

“The act of 1715, chap. 44, sec.
2, provides ’that from and after the publication
thereof no servant or servants whatsoever, within
this province, whether by indenture or by the custom
of the counties, or hired for wages shall travel
by land or water ten miles from the house of his,
her or their master, mistress or dame, without
a note under their hands, or under the hands of his,
her or their overseer, if any be, under the penalty
of being taken for a runaway, and to suffer such
penalties as hereafter provided against runaways.’
The Act of 1806, chap. 81, sec. 5, provides, ’That
any person taking up such runaway, shall have
and receive $6,’ to be paid by the master or
owner. It was also determined to have put
in force the act of 1825, chap. 161, and the act
of 1839, chap. 320, relative to idle, vagabond, free
negroes, providing for their sale or banishment
from the State. All persons interested, are
hereby notified that the aforesaid laws, in particular,
will be enforced, and all officers failing to
enforce them will be presented to the Grand Jury, and
those who desire to avoid the penalties of the
aforesaid statutes are requested to conform to
these provisions.”

As to the modus operandi by which so many men, women
and children were delivered and safely forwarded to
Canada, despite slave-hunters and the fugitive slave
law, the subjoined letters, from different agents and
depots, will throw important light on the question.